Baylor Homecoming Parade to Be Broadcast Live on KCEN-TV Ch. 6

The Baylor Homecoming Parade, one of the oldest and largest collegiate homecoming parades in the country, enters the heart of campus on Fifth Street. This photo, taken during the 2010 Homecoming Parade by Baylor Photography’s Matthew Minard, was selected by the Smithsonian Institution for display in an exhibit called “Hometown Teams,” part of the Smithsonian’s “Museum on Main Street” series of traveling exhibitions. (Matthew Minard/Baylor University)

The Baylor Homecoming Parade broadcast is made possible each year by the generous support of the Sadie Jo Black Family Foundation.

Following the parade, the Baylor Bears will host Oklahoma State with kickoff at 11 a.m. in McLane Stadium. Fans are encouraged to #StripeMcLane in green and gold.

Livestreaming also available for nation’s oldest and largest collegiate homecoming parade

WACO, Texas (Oct. 31, 2018) – Baylor University and KCEN-TV Ch. 6 will team up to broadcast the 109th anniversary Baylor Homecoming Parade, one of the oldest and largest collegiate homecoming parades in the nation, with live coverage on Ch. 6 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, from Fifth Street on the Baylor campus.

The parade broadcast is made possible by the generous support of the Sadie Jo Black Family Foundation. Returning to host the parade this year are John Morris and Lori Fogleman.

The Baylor Homecoming Parade will begin at 7 a.m. at Eighth Street and Austin Avenue in downtown Waco. It will travel down Austin and make a right on Fourth Street. Progressing down Fourth, the parade will go under the I-35 overpass, turn right on Dutton Avenue and then left on Fifth Street. The parade is expected to enter the Baylor campus at approximately 7:30 a.m.

This year’s parade will feature nearly 200 entries, including 10 elaborately designed floats, 11 balloons, university and community dignitaries, marching bands and musical acts, and campus and community organizations. The balloons include three new entries featuring Sailor Bear (carried by alumni), Baylor Set (volleyball student support organization) and Ronald McDonald House, the philanthropy of Alpha Delta Pi.

This year’s grand marshals of the Baylor Homecoming Parade are Bill and Pat Carlton (B.B.A. ’71 and B.A. ’71) of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Dan and Jenni Hord (B.B.A. ’89 and B.B.A. ’92) of Midland. The Carltons and the Hords join Mark and Jennifer McCollum (B.B.A. ’80 and B.S.Ed. ’80) of Houston, Mark (B.B.A. ’79) and Paula Hurd of Atherton, California, Paul (B.B.A. ’79) and Alejandra Foster of El Paso and John and Nancy Jackson (B.B.A. ’79 and B.S.Ed. ’79) of The Woodlands as co-chairs of the national campaign steering committee of Give Light, the University’s comprehensive philanthropy campaign.

Also riding in the parade is Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., who will be joined by First Gent Brad Livingstone.

Following the parade, the Baylor Bears will host Oklahoma State with kickoff at 11 a.m. in McLane Stadium. Game tickets are available at bthere.baylorbears.com. In addition, fans are encouraged to #StripeMcLane in green and gold. See the map for section colors.

History of the Baylor Homecoming Parade

In the fall of 1909, Baylor University alumni received a surprising invitation from their alma mater. A postcard signed by three professors asked the graduates to return to campus to “renew former associations and friendships, and catch the Baylor spirit again.”

Since 1909, the Baylor Homecoming Parade has been a first-class extravaganza of color that featured bands, horse-drawn carriages and wagons, student and civic organizations and a stream of dignitaries.

On Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 24, 1909, the Baylor Band, as is still the custom today, headed the first Baylor Homecoming Parade and was led by its towering drum major, who, it was reported, was “six feet six in his stocking feet and without his bearskin cap.”

As the band moved westward up Washington Avenue and then down to Eighth and Austin, it was followed in the parade – 30 to 40 blocks long – by distinguished guests, speakers, alumni and former students, Baylor clubs, university trustees, Baylor President Samuel Palmer Brooks and faculty, the dean and faculty of the medical school, the R.C.B.’s and Calliopeans women’s clubs, Alessandro’s Band, the Erisophians and Philomathesians men’s clubs, the Baylor Medicos, the football squad, the tennis club and the basketball team, in that order.

Autos and carriages, 60 in all, followed, and all were decorated – one completely covered with yellow chrysanthemums.

The female literary societies filled “tallyhos” decorated with the colors of their organizations. The men’s societies walked in four lines that greatly lengthened as the parade progressed when alumni of the groups joined in the march.

The parade must have moved rather quickly because the football game started just 30 minutes later on Carroll Field, with Baylor prevailing over TCU 6-3.

Despite the initial success of the first Baylor Homecoming Parade, the event – indeed, Homecoming itself – did not become an annual tradition until after World War II.

The second Baylor Homecoming Parade took place in 1915, six years after the first, and the third was not until 1924. Afterward, Homecoming was held intermittently until World War II and, after the war, resumed on an annual basis from 1945 to the present.

Floats first appeared in the parade in 1915. Floats became standard for the parade during the 1920s and usually carried general themes, often patriotic in nature.

It wasn’t until the 1950s that the floats began to take note of Baylor’s opponent for the Homecoming football game. By 1960, practically every float carried a slogan that forecast doom for the mascot of the opposing team.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.